The Girl Next Door
by SashaCdA
Summary: I wrote a dan and phil fanfic! well, i tried to. I've read a few and they're mostly either about a fangirl who gets swept off her feet by dan, or they're about Phan, which is cool, they're fun to read! But I thought I'd try something different. Pay attention to the dates at the start of each section! they're important! pleeease read & review, thanks!
1. Prologue

Okay. Take a moment and remember your first kiss. Not a peck on the lips when you were 5. Your first proper kiss. Think about what it was like. How it felt, who it was with. Just close your eyes and relive that moment. Every second.

Now imagine it had never happened. Or for some reason you can't relive it.

I can't remember my first kiss. I remember the guy. And I remember kissing him. But I don't remember my FIRST kiss. It just wasn't special. Your first kiss is supposed to be romantic in the rain or on a beach or something. Not mine. I can't remember which kiss came first, out of the three I remember. I was only 10.

But I remember my first love. Well, sort of. It was our first year of school, ever, I was 4. We thought we were boyfriend and girlfriend, but the most we ever did was hold hands. I think after a week, we "broke up". I said I was too old for him or something. He didn't talk to me afterwards so I don't think he really cared.


	2. Chapter 1

**September 2011**

"Oh my god. Have you seen these YouTubers? They literally live in Manchester. LOOK AT THIS."

Sophie almost shoved her laptop screen in my face as she made me watch a video on YouTube.

"Wow I haven't been on YouTube for ages! I didn't know people still used it. I used to but-" suddenly I laugh at the video of two guys walking along outside the shopping centre I go to pretty much daily. "Oh my god that's really weird seeing stuff like that on YouTube! How many fans do they have? Whereabouts do they live in Manchester?"

"Erm... I think they each have a few hundred thousand subscribers. They live in a block of flats which is somewhere near here I think..."

"Cool."

We sit there for half an hour giggling at these two boys, about the same age as us, doing all sorts of ridiculous things. One of them lies face down on an escalator in the Arndale, slowly moving upwards and getting some strange looks.

"Hey that's in Next!"

"Yep. It's so cool isn't it!"

"Yeah. Soph, I need to go to sleep I am soooo tired. See you tomorrow!" I leave Sophie and Katie's flat and go up a floor to mine which I share with my friend Natalie.

"Night Ella!" Sophie calls as I close the door quietly. It's ten to midnight and their flat is next door to a baby, and that is something you do not want to wake in the middle of the night.

As I unlock the door of our flat, Natalie is already asleep so I am careful not to wake her up. One of our other friends Amy was round but I think she's left now. I go straight to bed and don't really think much of anything Sophie showed me.

**February 1998**

I came home off the bus exhausted. I had got up at god-knows-when o'clock and it was 6:30pm now. It was a tiring lifestyle for a 7 year old girl but it meant I could go to a good school so I didn't mind much.

I was about to have my tea when my mum gave me a red envelope.

"What?" I asked.

"It came through the door. I don't know who it's from but remember that it is Valentine's day today, and so maybe someone has their eye on you!" My mum seemed pretty excited by all this.

"But... I don't know any boys..." I said, confused. I had been going to an all girls school since September the previous year and I had only kept in touch with my girl friends from my old school. I didn't know who it was from but I still opened it and it was indeed a valentine's card. It didn't say much inside. It just had "Ella" written at the top, "Happy Valentine's day" in print, and three kisses at the bottom. There was also a keyring inside the card; it had a little silver heart on it. I didn't know what it meant but I kept my first valentine's card and I still have it now. And I put the keyring on my schoolbag and wore it with pride, telling everyone at school it was from my boyfriend.


	3. Chapter 2

**December 2011**

I find myself sitting on my sofa, scrolling down Facebook. Again. I need a more interesting daily regime. At the moment it's: Get up, shower, eat, go into town with either Natalie or Soph and Emilia, come back and sit on my laptop. How did this become my life? When I was younger I used to dream about adult life. But this is really not what I signed up for. I had an image of my gap year, and it was not this. I thought I would be back in Australia, or travelling the world with all my friends. But instead we went to Singapore for four weeks, Spain for two, and then went back home.

And then, out of nowhere, something random pops up in my head. I message Sophie, although I could easily walk downstairs, but she's probably on facebook too right now so I don't bother going down.

_Heyyy what were those youtubers called who lived in Manchester? Xxxxx_

I don't know why I suddenly care so much but I'm intrigued.

_"Danisnotonfire and Amazingphil xxxx" _was the reply.

I type the names into YouTube and instantly there are hundreds of results. "Dan and Phil would you rather", "Truth or dare", "Dan vs. Phil"...

I click on Truth or Dare and it's kind of amusing. It actually makes me laugh out loud; usually internet jokes only make you blow more air out of your nose than usual.

"Go into town and play the lying down game" is one of the dares.

I see the clip of the guy (whose name I now know is Dan) lying face down on an escalator again, and then under a table in the train station, and then- I gasp. The film is just of a lift, but a lift I recognise. I recognise all the other places of course, but they are public places, and this lift isn't in a shopping centre. It's in the block of flats next door. The block where Amy lives with her boyfriend Teo. I don't think Sophie has ever been in there, she doesn't really know Amy. I quickly put two and two together and realise they must live there.

Again, I think it's quite cool, but after about 10 minutes I have forgotten all about it.

**September 2001**

I sat in my dorm crying. Natalie and Sophie were there trying to calm me down, but it was no use. I had no idea what to do.

I was ten years old. I had just left my all girls school to go to a boarding school in the centre of Manchester. I was coping fine being away from home, but there was something else which was worrying me.

On the first week back in September, there was a disco, to get everyone to socialize and to "celebrate" going back to school. _Celebrate._ But the thing is, about five minutes ago I had been asked out to the disco. Twice. By two different boys. Charlie and Liam. I had barely any experience with boys, how could you blame me? I had gone to a school where there weren't any for three years. It was all way too much for me to bear and in the end I didn't go at all.

**November 2001**

Another disco. Just what I needed. But this time I was ready. I knew I was going with Charlie this time. We went together, and it was fun. And then afterwards, Natalie came up to me and said,

"Ella, I think Charlie wants to ask you something."

I knew what was coming. He couldn't even bring himself to ask the question, but I said to him, "Would it be easier if I just said yes?"

And we were going out. We hugged each other, and I went to my dorm and he went to his.

What I didn't know then was that Charlie would be the boy with whom I would have my first kiss, although I don't remember it.


	4. Chapter 3

**New Year's Eve 2011**

Natalie and I are with Sophie and Katie at Amy and Teo's for New Year's Eve. It's Soph and Katie's first time here, but Nataile and I have been here many times. There are a few of Amy's friends there as well, both boys and girls.

At about half eleven we each drink a glass of champagne. I am about to drink another one but I decide not to. I don't want to get drunk. There are people here I don't know and I am not going to embarrass myself in front of total strangers.

Suddenly I realise I have to phone my mum. She's in New York and she'll be watching the big apple live when it gets to midnight over there. I know there's a time difference and it won't be 2012 there for about 10 hours but she told me to call her today and I don't want to keep her waiting. Quietly I slip outside the flat and start dialling her number. I walk up and down the corridor trying to remember what numbers you have to put in front of the phone number for America. For god's sake what is it?! I am starting to get flustered now but I figure I could just Google it.

But the moment at which I open the internet on my phone happens to coincide with the moment the heel decides to break off my shoe.

"Shit!" I yell.

I fall over, flinging my phone into the wall.

I get up immediately. I'm fine, the only casualty being my shoe. Or so I think. As I go to pick it up I groan at the sight of my iPhone. They are notoriously bad at surviving being dropped, let alone being thrown into a wall. I can instantly see that it isn't going to be usable. The glass is so shattered I can't see the screen at all.

I sit down against the wall, staring at my phone. I'm not angry, or upset, just kind of disappointed. I don't really know why I'm not more annoyed. It wasn't exactly a cheap phone and I haven't had it for that long. It's insured, though, so I can take it to the store tomorrow and get it exchanged... I'm going to need to borrow someone's phone, though, or my mum will start wondering why I haven't called her.

As I take off my broken shoes, a door opens down the hallway and a guy comes out.

"Hey, is everything ok? We heard something... loud," he says.

"Oh yeah, I'm fine, well, my phone isn't but I am," I reply quickly as I stand up.

"Let's see that," the guy says, coming out the flat and into the hallway. I hand him my phone and he can't help laughing. "Yeah, that's pretty broken. Do you want to borrow mine?"

"Oh could I? But... I need to call America... are you sure you don't mind?"

"Of course not! Come on in," the guy replies. He opens the door for me and I carry my shoes inside. "I'm Phil, by the way."

"Cool. I knew a guy called Phil once. I'm Ella," I reply.


	5. Chapter 4

Phil unlocks his phone and hands it to me. I am about to type the number and then I remember I still don't actually know the code for America. I ask Phil, but he doesn't know either.

"DAN!" he calls.

Another guy, presumably Dan, comes into the living room. "Phiiil I was recording! What is it?"

"What's the code for calling the United States?"

"One I think... who's this?" Dan notices me.

"This is what was crashing about outside."

I giggle as Phil properly introduces us. "Ella, this is Dan. Dan, Ella. Dan and I live here together. Do you live nearby?"

"I'm from the block of flats next to this one..." I peer out the window of Dan and Phil's flat but I can't see my block. It's probably just out of sight, round the corner.

Wait... I recognise the view from this window. I don't know how. Amy and Teo's flat is on the other side of this building so their window has a completely different view, I can't know it from theirs. I subconsciously stare out the window searching my mind for where I have seen that picture before.

Oh my god! Dan and Phil! These are those YouTube guys who live in this block of flats! How did I not realise? I have seen the window view in a couple of their videos. Once I realise, I don't understand how I couldn't have noticed.

Dan lets me go into his room to call my mum. The phone rings for a few seconds, and it is picked up by an American woman.

"Hello, which continent are you calling from?"

"Europe," I reply.

"Okay, please hold while put you through."

Oh god, this could take ages. It must be so expensive! But he said he didn't mind...

While I wait for my mum's phone to start ringing, I look round the room. Not because I'm nosy, I just take in my surroundings. It's night, and the main light is off, but a computer on the bed is giving off light. There's also a lava lamp and other lights around the bed. It's a pretty cool room.

"Hi Ella!"

"Oh! Hi mum." The phone had started ringing without me noticing, and my mum had picked up. "How's America..."

**April 2002**

Charlie had just been expelled from school. And because of me.

I didn't really like going out with him. I had told him that I didn't like him anymore but I didn't actually have the guts to dump him. He just couldn't take a hint. He had also been suspended in January for threatening to stab a guy in the year below with some scissors. I didn't want that kind of guy for a boyfriend! If he was threatening to stab people at the age of eleven, what would he be like ten years later?! It showed me what he was potentially capable of. I told myself I had to do something about it.

Eventually I got the courage to let him know it was over. Well, not to his face. I left a note in his locker. I thought breaking up would make us both safer, but he just got worse. At first he tried to kill himself, but he then turned to vandalism with a girl in the year below to try and get my attention.

Eventually the head of the school said that he was a risk to other students and he would have to leave. I was happy that I finally didn't have anything to do with him. The only thing that upset me a tiny bit was that I had given him my little silver heart keyring. He took it with him and I never saw it again. I don't know what he's done with it. Thrown it away, probably.


End file.
